Well, Summer is over (not that we really had any Summer here in Cardiff…) and it’s getting colder & darker outside. Don’t worry, I’ve found a way to make you feel warm & cosy inside – gluten free, lactose free Mac n Cheese!! Hot, oozy, carby goodness; it’s the perfect time of year for it! Shut your eyes to the calories, shut your eyes to the mess you will make in your kitchen (pour yourself a glass of wine if you need to!!) roll up your sleeves and prepare to make magic…

This was B’s idea tonight. I was going to do Spag Bol – I fancied something hot & pasta heavy; but this is B’s favourite and I haven’t made it for a while, so it was a no brainer! I got 3 very generous portions from the above quantities (greedy, gluttonous portions!). The perfect meal for when you need something starchy & carb-heavy, with the added comfort of cheesiness! The only downside I can see to this is the washing up (thankfully, that’s B’s domain!) and the fact that you’ll burn your tongue again and again because it’s so delicious that you won’t have the patience to wait for it to cool before putting it in your mouth (think of the moth & the lightbulb from the kitkat advert…). Enjoy!

New home & new job has left my kitchenware feeling rather unloved. My food processor is gathering dust and my matroyshka measuring cups have become mere ornaments to pretty up my kitchen. My foot’s on the mend which means I’m out and about more now, and have less time to poke about in the kitchen like I did a few months ago.

Anyways, when there isn’t enough time to spend all day cooking, this one pot wonder is a life saver; throw everything in a pan, put the lid on it for a bit, then serve. This is a real hug in a bowl, or a bowl full of hugs… Spicy, hearty, warming, stomach filling… I could go on! And the end result is always delicious – slightly different every time I make it, but that’s the fun of it – it’s definitely food for the soul, and satisfying enough for times when you’re feeling greedy. Enough rambling, here’s (roughly) how I make my Spicy Rice & Beans…

Stir in the rice, cover and simmer gently for around 20 minutes (until water has been absorbed and rice is tender)

That’s it – serve, and enjoy!

See, I said it was easy. If this isn’t comfort food then I don’t know what is. Best of all, it lends itself to whatever fresh/frozen ingredients you’ve got lying around – perfect for one of those ’emptying the fridge’ days. If you’ve only got one tin of beans, add more veg; I’ve made it with carrot, courgette, sometimes mushrooms – and I’ve even been known to throw in a diced potato. Yes, I make it that often!

The above quantities will make 3-4 portions (generously) as a stand-alone main dish. Use common sense; if you need to feed more people, add more stuff! If anyone tries it, I’d love to hear how yours turns out!

Wow, what a one-pot-wonder! This recipe is full of flavour, what a way to kickstart the week! I’ve tried my hand at making paella before, but it was less than amazing. I wanted to try again because I’m always drawn to the lively colours, and it’s rice – I love rice! Looking back, my first paella fail was probably down to me over-complicating it, because tonight this was so easy and quick to make!

Here’s the recipe, it’s vegan and gluten free!

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil

160g spiced tofu, chopped (I used this one by Cauldron and it was fantastic)

Add the saffron to the hot vegetable stock in a jug or a bowl and leave to infuse

In a large deep pan, heat the oil over medium/high heat

Add the tofu, mushrooms, carrot, celery, courgette and green peppers and heat for 5-10 minutes, stirring and shaking every so often as it simmers

Stir in the garlic and chilli and leave for about 10 seconds

Add the stock (with saffron) and keep the heat high, bringing it to the boil

Stir in the paprika and cayenne

Once boiling, stir in the rice, cover and keep on a medium heat to a fast simmer for 18 minutes until the rice is tender and almost all of the water has been absorbed (don’t poke about with it during this time or the rice will release it’s starch and you’ll end up with risotto!)

Open the lid, put the peas evenly on top of the paella, then re-cover and allow them to steam for 1-2 minutes

Take off the heat, stir in the lime juice and spring onions, and serve!

The above quantities came out with 3 generous portions. Simple! This is definitely my new favourite one-pot-wonder, it even had B’s seal of approval (and he’s a proper carnivore!). You could change up the vegetables and use whatever you fancy or whatever you have to hand – throw in some tomatoes, maybe some green beans – I’d definitely use the Cauldron tofu again, it’s marinated and lightly spiced so goes really well in this dish. Happy Meatless Monday everyone!

I haven’t been around here much lately. Things have been a bit crazy with househunting and one thing and another, but tonight I made Tacos that I just had to share with the world. They were born from the simple fact that I had sweet potatoes in the cupboard that needed eating. I’d like to say I made my own taco shells, but I didn’t. B found the corn shells we bought on offer when they fell out of the cupboard this morning – so the decision was made, we were having sweet potato tacos for dinner!

They were sweet, tangy, creamy, and spicy all at the same time. As well as being stupidly easy to make, they are healthy and filling too. Here’s how I made the filling for roughly 8 tacos…

Spag Bol, as it’s commonly known here, is a classic. It’s simple, and everyone loves it. I’ve often heard Gino D’acampo say that in Italy, you won’t have spaghetti with bolognese – but since I can’t seem to get gluten free tagliatelle, or fettuccine, gluten free spaghetti will have to do. And it does, quite nicely!

Truthfully, I had never eaten spaghetti bolognese until I met B 7 years ago, and then, it meant frying some beef mince and onion, stirring in a jar of sauce, and putting it on some spaghetti. If that sounds like your version, next time you’re at the shop, instead of buying that jar of ‘sauce’, just pick up a carton of tomato passata. It couldn’t be simpler to make it from scratch, and surely far cheaper than buying a gluten free sauce.

I’ve been off work for a little while with a bad foot, so I seem to have watched a lot of daytime TV, and have picked up some tips too. Gino alwas says that you never put the sauce on top of the pasta; you always put the pasta into the sauce. This might well be common knowledge, but it’s not the way I used to do it, and it seems to make on hell of a difference! Anyway, I know most people have their own recipe for this family favourite, but incase, like me, you’d always made it using a jar of sauce, here’s my ridiculously easy yet amazingly tasty version of ‘Spag Bol”…

Ingredients:

250g lean beef mince

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

4 mini portabella mushrooms, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

1 fat clove of garlic, peeled and pressed / finely chopped

500g tomato passata (sieved tomatoes, from a carton)

1 whole dried bay leaf

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp each of dried oregano, dried basil, dried parsley

250g gluten free spaghetti (I used corn)

Method:

In a large saucepan, add about 1tbsp olive oil to the mince, and break it up with the back of a spoon, while on a low heat

Once the mince has started to brown, add the onion, mushrooms and red pepper

Once the veggies have softened and the mince is pretty much cooked, add the garlic and stir through

Now add the passata, and turn up the heat to bring it to a simmer

Mix in the black pepper, oregano and basil, and bury the bayleaf, whole, in the sauce

Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes (add the parsley in for the last 5 minutes of cooking)

Meanwhile put a large pan of water on to boil for the pasta (I don’t salt my water; I don’t see the need, but do so if you must)

Put your spaghetti into the boiling water, and cook for 8-9 minutes, until it is ‘al dente’ – cooked but firm

Drain your spaghetti, and put it into your bolognese sauce, mixing well

Give your spaghetti about a minute to soak up some sauce, then serve and enjoy!

Easy! So that’s how I do it. I get 3 good servings from this, so it feeds me and B, with leftovers for his lunch tomorrow. I use dried herbs, but if you have fresh to hand then use those instead. One day I’ll have a little herb garden up and running, but until then, my dried herbs will serve me well.

Everybody needs cheering up on a Monday, don’t they? B’s been feeling under the weather, so I decided to make yet more cakes in an attempt to perk him up.

I used up all the nuts in the cakes I made the other day, so I raided the cupboards and decided on a mixture of Cocoa Powder and Creamed Coconut (I but the Patak’s sachets of creamed coconut which is solid and then I chop it). Here’s what came out of the oven:

And here’s how I made it…

Ingredients:

125g gluten free self raising flour (I used Dove’s Farm)

125g brown sugar

50g dairy free margarine (I used Vitalite)

25g Cocoa Powder (the Green & Black’s that was in my cupboard)

3 free range eggs (small to medium sized)

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp lactofree milk or milk substitute

1 tsp gluten free baking powder

50g creamed coconut (chopped)

Easy Peasy Method:

Measure out your dry ingredients and mix them together in a bowl

Add your wet ingredients and mix well until there are no lumps and you have a nice thick batter

Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases, fairly full

Bake for around 20 minutes at 190 degrees C

Try not to burn your fingers when you try to eat them straight from the oven!

The chopped creamed coconut left lovely gooey chunks of coconutty goodness through the cakes – you can see it in the pic here:

This mixture made about 15 small cakes. 15 small cakes, for 2 people… all this baking can’t bee good for the waistline. It’s just me and B here, and we live about an hour away from family… so whatever I make in this kitchen, gets eaten in this kitchen. Oh well, that’s a dilemma for another day, these cakes brightened up my Monday and that’s all that counts!

I woke up to a lovely message today, telling me I’d been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award! How lovely is that!

Huge thanks to Liz at just another day out west for nominating me for the award. It really made me smile! I came across the blog by chance when searching through posts tagged ‘gluten free’, and it’s lovely to read about her idyllic lifestyle and beautiful horses!

Rules are rules; now I need to share with you 7 random pieces of information! Here goes…

I’m 23 years old

I have a 4 year old rescue dog named Jeremy, he’s a Lhasa Apso who loves the sound of his own voice!

I live with B, my fiance, who is 6’5″ tall (77 inches)

I am only 5′ tall… (60 inches)

I’ve been gluten free since January 2011

You will often find me in the kitchen with a glass of wine – it gets the creative juices flowing

I’ve not cut my hair since November 2010

On with the show! Below (in no particular order) are the 7 bloggers I’ve chosen to nominate for the Versatile Blogger Award:

If the 7 bloggers above want to share the love, too, here are the VBA rules:

1. In a post on your blog, nominate 7 fellow bloggers for The Versatile Blogger Award.
2. In the same post, add the Versatile Blogger Award.
3. In the same post, thank the blogger who nominated you in a post with a link back to their blog.
4. In the same post, share 7 completely random pieces of information about yourself.
5. In the same post, include this set of rules.
6. Inform each nominated blogger of their nomination by posting a comment on each of their blogs.